New Mexico legislators hope $2.5M can avert water war in Carlsbad, Eddy County

Two legislators from Eddy County have co-sponsored a bill to avert a water war between the Carlsbad Irrigation District and the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District that includes Artesia and Roswell. Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Lea and Eddy, and Rep. Cathrynn Brown, R-Eddy, said Senate Bill 462 asks the state to take $2.5 million from the state's general fund and give it to the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission to help agriculture in the Lower Pecos River Basin. Brown and Leavell said they co-sponsored the bill to help mitigate effects of the drought in the Lower Pecos River Basin and the Carlsbad Irrigation District and avert a water call on junior water right holders by the Carlsbad Irrigation District, which has the most senior water rights on the river. Leavell and Brown said the funding, if the bill is passed, would go to the Interstate Stream Commission to help the agency work though the many complex issues in an effort to avoid a water call by the CID. CID farmers are expecting a scant water allotment due to the drought. They say their counterparts in the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District are pumping their full allotments, while they are facing a much curtailed water allotment...more